In spite of the extensive antiinflammatory research in the past two decades, there is still an obvious need for an effective and well tolerated agent for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Conventional non-steroidal antiinflammatory-analgesic-antipyretic agents, such as aspirin and many experimental new drugs under clinical evaluation, are mostly effective in providing symptomatic relief of the acute syndrome only. As a consequence, the anti-rheumatic actions of two old remedies, gold and D-penicillamine, in spite of their potential side-effects, have received renewed interest in the past few years. The clinical efficacy of both drugs was reconfirmed by well-controlled multi-center clinical studies. Several rheumatologists have expressed the opinion that a superior D-pennicillamine-like compound would be a valuable contribution to medicine in this important field.